The Least Surprising Story of The Business Year

The American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) is a highly-respected organization (based in Milwaukee!!!) which doesn't deal in rumors. They study stuff.

So this story is significant. In general terms, an ASQC study shows that outsourcing manufacturing to Mexico or PRChina is not "the" solution.

That's clear from a new business survey from Milwaukee-based American Society for Quality, which polled more than 300 companies to find what they liked and didn't like about outsourcing.

The survey, done in October, found that 55% of the companies were "substantially dissatisfied" with their outsource provider in the areas of innovation and making process improvements. Only 34% said outsourcing provided a good value.

Fewer than half of the companies, 41%, said outsourcing met their performance metrics.

...Communication problems, poor customer service, slow delivery times, and quality control are just some of the pitfalls.

When you send back 1/3 of the product for re-work, especially in a JIT environment, you're in trouble.